Wild Rallies to Catch, Tie Canucks 2-2

Published 7:00 pm, Tuesday, January 28, 2003

Sergei Zholtok scored midway through the third period, and the Minnesota Wild rallied from a two-goal deficit to tie the Vancouver Canucks 2-2 Tuesday night.

Zholtok caught goaltender Dan Cloutier leaning to his left and wired a slap shot from just inside the blueline that went in off the right post.

Markus Naslund and Brent Sopel had a goal and an assist each for the Canucks, who remain five points up on Minnesota in the Northwest Division.

Nick Schultz also scored for the Wild, who fell behind early.

Naslund opened the scoring 3:15 in with his NHL-best 35th goal of the season.

Todd Bertuzzi was angled away from the net by the net on a partial 2-on-1, but spun back and threw a blind pass into the slot that Naslund one-timed past Dwayne Roloson.

Naslund now has four goals and four assists during a six-game point streak to move within three points of injured league-leader Mario Lemieux.

Sopel banged in a power-play rebound at 7:17 to make it 2-0. The goal, which came with Brad Brown serving the second half of a double minor for high sticking, was the first given up by Wild penalty killers in 38 chances over the last nine games.

Schultz answered for the Wild before the end of the first period, beating a screened Dan Cloutier from the point after Sergei Zholtok beat Henrik Sedin cleanly on a faceoff in the Vancouver end.

Roloson started his franchise-record ninth consecutive game, and made 20 stops, including all three in overtime, as Minnesota recorded its fifth point through four games of a season-long five-game road trip.

Roloson made the only three saves of overtime, stopping Sami Salo s hard shot from the blueline and a wrist shot by Naslund from between the circles.

Cloutier finished with 22 saves for Vancouver.

Notes: The teams finished 2-2-1 in the season series. … Roloson is scheduled to start Wednesday in Edmonton, but might have to return home to Minnesota at any time because his wife Melissa is expecting the couple's second child this week. … Vancouver LW Daniel Sedin, the second overall pick in 1999 draft, was a healthy scratch for the third time this year. … Minnesota LW Jeremy Stevenson left the game in the first period after being taken into the boards by Marek Malik and did not return.